1. Field
The invention relates to search engine technology and specifically to search engines which utilize human searchers or guides. A method and system is disclosed whereby any request may be modified to become a request initiated responsive to an arbitrary trigger event.
2. Description of the Related Art
In current search systems, a user may submit a search request which may include words, phrases and/or other information. A user may receive a search result responsive to a search request. Likewise, a user may elect to receive a notification regarding information from various sources. For example, a user may receive an alert via text, email, or other forms of messaging when a specific trigger event occurs, such as a change in a stock price, a final or partial score in an athletic event, a news alert, etc. Such alerts may be received by selecting from a menu of items offered by various service providers such as brokerage houses, telecommunications providers, news services, etc. A user may subscribe to such services using various mechanisms such as a web service, a text message service, or a service based on any types of communication services.
A user may be able to provide a request to a human assisted search service which may be an arbitrary request. As a human may interpret a request, it is not necessary that the request conforms to any specific configuration or grammar. Services such as the ChaCha® search service or the AQA service. A person may wish to know information of an arbitrary request based on a condition which may be an arbitrary event. As described in the related U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/398,454 previously mentioned a user may employ a human assistant or guide to create a request which is initiated responsive to an indefinite condition.
A user may submit the same or similar queries on multiple occasions. However, there is no method or system whereby a user may create a recurring request including based on the frequency of a request. Likewise, a user might desire to make a recurring request based on requests made by other users with similar interests. However, there is no system or method of sharing queries which are associated with multiple users.
In a typical human assisted search system, a search request or search query is directed to a person who may perform an information search responsive to the search request and provide a search result to a user. Such systems have been implemented by companies such as AskMeNow, AnyQueryAnswered, and others. For example, US Published application 20050289130 by Cohen et. al., describes a system whereby a query is received from a user device, transcribed, and a response provided to a user as a text message on the user device. Likewise US Published application 20070219987 by Meyers describes a system whereby text queries may be processed and answers returned to a user. Such systems have encountered difficulty as a searcher must perform a search in a minimum amount of time in order to improve customer experience as well as reduce the cost to serve a customer. Several efforts have been made in this area by companies such as FoneWeb as exemplified by US published application 2007/0208570. Such systems may process a query in order to identify the subject matter, but once subject matter is identified, a searcher may spend significant time and effort in finding a relevant result.
In light of this and other existing problems, a method and system whereby a user of search services may create and manage favorite question(s) which may be repeated based on various criteria is needed.